Confirming that it means business in the motherboard market segment, Sapphire has announced two new mini ITX motherboard based on Intel's H67 and H61 chipset that will be a part of its Pure Platinum series.

Both motherboards feature support for Intel's 2nd gen Core LGA1155 processors and comes with Sapphire Diamond Black chokes, support for up to 8GB of DDR3 memory in two dual channel slots, mini PCI-E x1 slot (most probably located on the back of the motherboard, although we couldn't find a picture of it), full length PCI-Express x16 slot in case you decide to go for dedicated graphics card, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports (eight including headers) integrated Bluetooth, integrated 7.1-channel audio and DVI, VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs with support for dual video output with a pair of any of those ports.

The differences between the Pure Platinum H67 and the H61 lay in a couple of features, including the number of SATA ports. The H67 features two SATA 6Gbps and two SATA 3Gbps ports with support for RAID as well as support for Intel's Virtu, while the rest is pretty much indentical.

The Pure Platinum H67 is already listed in Europe with a lowest price tag se at €100,89 and the H61 will, of course, be a bit cheaper.

Intel is already talking to its partners about its upcoming 22nm Ivy Bridge CPU, and it is sharing some hints of performance. One of the things that Intel told recently is that this 22nm processor should offer more performance with a similar thermal envelope.

Intel tells its partners that they can expect around 20 percent performance increase from Sandy Bridge, which is roughly the same gain that Sandy Bridge had over Nehalem based CPUs. This is an optical shrink of the existing 32nm Sandy Bridge architectureas Intel traditionally takes a safe approach when moves from one manufacturing process to another. The 22nm part after Ivy Bridge is the one with the new architecture, while Ivy Bridge's first competition are Bulldozer and Llano from AMD.

Intel's Ivy Bridge will work in H67 and P67 boards and it will fit in existing boards for both desktop and mobile parts. We already reported about it here.

Sapphire has been known for their graphics cards and although the company already did a lot of motherboards based on AMD's chipsets, it looks like they are getting quite serious now. The P67 that was showcased was just a begining as Sapphire also has the mini-ITX H67 as well as the new Z68 in the works.

The upcoming H67 LGA 1155 motherboard still doesn't have an official name but we do have some pictures and details. Bear in mind that all Sapphire motherboards have a unique design due to the fact that Sapphire does these things on their own rather than following Intel's reference designs. Thus, you can expect that these will be quite good.

The specs are pretty standard as you have a 4-phase VRM for the CPU and features a total of four SATA ports, two being a SATA 6Gbps ones. It also comes with two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ones, Ethernet, Bluetooth, 7.1-channel audio and D-Sub, DVI, HDMI and Display Port outputs, something that you don't see every day. The one thing that seperates the Sapphire H67 from the rest of the crowd is the addition of the LucidLogix chip that will allow GPU switching between the Sandy Bridge CPU and its graphics and the dedicated graphics card.

Although we don't have many details regarding it, it is nice to know that Sapphire is also working on the Z68 based motherboard as well. Again, this one will be equipped with Lucid's Hydra chip. As far as the specs go, it features three PCI-Express slots, three PCI slots, a total of four SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps ports, special Sapphire BlackDiamond Chokes, two USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, 7.1-channel audio, dual BIOS, debug post display, and of course, DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI and D-Sub outputs.

Of course, the Z68 is still in its early stage but we are sure that we'll see it launched at Computex, next to that mini-ITX H67 motherboard.

Intel definitely wants to roll out a new chipset after the Sandy Bridge P67 and H67 debacle but it will take them until end of the year before it happens.

Codename for Ivy Bridge 22nm CPU chipset is Panther Point. The new chipset is going to end up with Intel 7 series brand, most likely P77 and G77, but it is too early to tell. It has 1Gb LAN support, PCIe 2nd generation support as well as SATA 3.0. Furthermore, it supports USB 3.0 and 2.0, which is the first time ever for an Intel chipset.

The surprising thing is HDMI 1.4 as well as DisplayPort 1.1. Ivy Bridge will be the third generation of Intel's CPU that features graphics support, and therefore Panther Point's DisplayPort and HDMI support will be put to good use.

MSI officially plans to put B3 stickers all over its P67 and H67 Sandy Bridge boards. The company wants to make sure that consumers will know when they buy a board with a fixed, B3 chipset.

Sales of P67 and H67 have been halted ever since Intel announced the bug, and the fixed boards are expected in April time. It looks like notebook manufacturers have the priority to roll out fixed notebooks and make some money for Intel but motherboard manufactures are next in line.

Intel will definitely cough a lot of money to cover the disaster Q1 for this recall.

G.Skill has updated its memory lineup to include new RipjawsX memory kits designed specifically for Intel's Sandy Bridge CPUs and H67/P67 chipsets.

The lineup includes over twenty different DDR3 kits ranging from 4GB 1333MHz CL 9-9-9-24 Ripjaws-X XL red kit all the way to the impressive 4GB 2300MHz CL 7-10-10-27 XHD(+Fan) kit. The lineup includes kits clocked at 1333MHz, 1600, 1866, 2133, 2200 and 2300MHz and are all designed to work on Intel H67/P67 platform paired up with Intel's Sandy Bridge LGA1155 processors. The voltage goes from 1.5 to 1.65V depending on the kit.

The highest capacity kits are 4x4GB ones that can be found clocked at 1333, 1600, 2133 and 2200MHz. The price or the availability date haven't been announced but a quick look at our price search engine shows that a lot of these are already listed. You can check them out here.

Although Intel's Sandy Bridge generation is still a few weeks away, several motherboard makers have already started selling H67 and P67 boards.

The move is obviously pointless, as no Socket 1155 processors are available at the moment, but at least we have a rough idea of what to expect in terms of pricing. According to our price search engine, the cheapest P67 motherboard is Gigabyte's GA-H67M-D2 and it's already available at €83. Asus and MSI have started shipping the P8H67-M and H67MA-E45 and they cost about €90.

The priciest H67 boards go for between €110 and €130 and they should have a few extra features to set them apart from the entry-level, such as USB 3.0 support. However, it's still a bit too early to know the exact specs, but the prices are quite modest.

In the P67 market there is a bit more choice. Prices start at just €115 for MSI's P67A-C45, but most P67 are shipping for about €150. The priciest boards come from Gigabyte and cost more than €200.

Bear in mind that we are still speaking about early listings and that only a handful of retailers actually carry the new boards, so there is a strong chance prices will be even lower once they become widely available. It's just rather unusual to see Sandy Bridge motherboards from several vendors selling weeks ahead of schedule, so we won't link the listings as there's really no point in buying them yet. Also, we've got better things to do.